Lab-grown meat: how it's made and what it means for the future of food

01The Science of Cultured Meat

Cultured meat — also known as cultivated meat — is a form of cellular agriculture in which meat is produced by culturing animal cells in vitro. The process yields animal flesh that is molecularly identical to conventional meat, grown outside a living animal. It relies on tissue engineering techniques pioneered in regenerative medicine: stem cells are extracted from a living animal through a small biopsy, then placed in a bioreactor with a nutrient-rich culture medium. The cells proliferate and differentiate into muscle, fat and connective tissue, gradually forming the components of edible meat.

The culture medium is the critical ingredient. It must supply amino acids, vitamins, minerals and growth factors that normally come from blood serum. Early prototypes used fetal bovine serum, which undermined the ethical and environmental rationale of cultured meat, since it required slaughtering calves. Most companies have since developed plant-based or recombinant growth factor alternatives, though the cost and scalability of these substitutes remain active areas of research.

02Cost Reduction Progress

The first lab-grown burger, presented in 2013, cost roughly $330,000 to produce. That figure was a proof of concept, not a commercial price, but it illustrated the gulf between laboratory demonstration and market viability. Over the following decade, costs fell dramatically as companies optimized cell lines, culture media and bioreactor designs. By the mid-2020s, some producers reported costs below $20 per kilogram for certain cell types, though full commercial-scale production remains more expensive than conventional meat.

The cost curve matters because it determines whether cultured meat can compete at the supermarket. Conventional chicken sells for under $5 per kilogram in many markets, and beef for $15 to $25. Cultured meat does not need to match the cheapest conventional options to be viable — it can target premium segments first — but to meaningfully reduce the environmental footprint of global meat consumption, it must eventually reach price parity with mass-market products.

03Regulatory Approval Status Worldwide

Regulatory approval has been the gatekeeper for cultured meat's commercial emergence. Singapore became the first country to approve cultured meat for sale in 2020, when the Singapore Food Agency cleared Eat Just's cultured chicken bites. The United States followed in 2023, when the USDA and FDA jointly approved cultivated chicken from two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, for sale in select restaurants. Israel approved cultured beef in 2024, and several other countries are reviewing applications.

The approval landscape is not uniformly positive. Italy passed legislation banning the production and sale of cultured meat in 2023, citing protection of traditional agriculture and food heritage. Other countries are considering similar restrictions. The regulatory divergence means that cultured meat companies must navigate a patchwork of national rules, and the pace of global adoption will depend as much on politics as on technology.

04Environmental Impact vs Traditional Livestock

One of the primary arguments for cultured meat is its potential to mitigate the environmental impact of conventional meat production. Traditional livestock farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, water pollution and biodiversity loss. Cattle are particularly impactful, producing methane through digestion and requiring extensive grazing land. Cultured meat production, in theory, requires a fraction of the land and water and produces significantly lower emissions, because it bypasses the metabolic overhead of keeping a living animal alive, warm and moving.

The actual environmental benefit depends on the energy source and the production process. Bioreactors require electricity for temperature control, mixing and sterilization. If powered by fossil fuels, the lifecycle emissions of cultured meat may not be dramatically lower than conventional poultry or pork. Independent lifecycle analyses suggest that cultured meat offers clear benefits over beef but more modest advantages over chicken, and that the sustainability case strengthens as production scales and energy grids decarbonize.

05Taste and Consumer Acceptance

The sensory experience of cultured meat has improved significantly since early prototypes, but it remains a work in progress. The first cultured burger was described as "close to meat" but lacking juiciness — a consequence of missing fat tissue. Modern products incorporate both muscle and fat cells, and companies have refined texture, flavor and appearance to more closely mimic conventional cuts. Blind taste tests have produced mixed results: some tasters cannot distinguish cultured from conventional, while others detect subtle differences in texture or flavor.

Consumer acceptance is a separate and perhaps larger challenge. Surveys consistently show that a significant fraction of consumers are reluctant to eat meat grown in a lab, citing concerns about naturalness, safety and the "yuck factor." The term "lab-grown" itself may suppress demand; companies prefer "cultivated" or "cultured" to evoke craftsmanship rather than industrial production. Education and transparency about the process will be essential, as will early adoption by respected chefs and restaurants that can legitimize the product through culinary endorsement.

06The Traditional Agriculture Response

The conventional meat industry has responded to cultured meat with a mix of opposition, investment and hedging. In the United States and Europe, agricultural lobbying groups have pushed for labeling restrictions that prevent cultured meat from being called "meat" without qualifiers, arguing that consumers associate the word with animal-raised products. Some ranching organizations have advocated for outright bans, citing rural livelihoods and food traditions. The Italian ban on cultured meat was driven in part by agricultural interests framing the technology as a threat to Italian culinary heritage.

At the same time, major meat companies have invested in cultured meat startups, recognizing that the technology may eventually complement or replace parts of their supply chain. This dual strategy — opposing in public while investing in private — reflects the industry's uncertainty about whether cultured meat will become a niche product or a transformative force. The outcome will depend on cost trajectories, consumer preferences and regulatory decisions that are still being made.

07When Will Lab-Grown Meat Be Mainstream?

The path to mainstream adoption has several milestones. Cost parity with at least one conventional meat category is the first, and it may arrive for premium products within the next several years. Scale is the second: current production facilities are small, and building bioreactor capacity sufficient to supply supermarkets requires capital investment comparable to new pharmaceutical manufacturing. Regulatory approval in major markets beyond the U.S. and Singapore is the third, and it is progressing but unevenly.

Most analysts project that cultured meat will capture a small but growing share of the global meat market by the late 2020s, primarily in premium and ethical-consumer segments. Mainstream parity — where cultured chicken or beef is available at prices comparable to conventional options in ordinary supermarkets — likely requires another decade of cost reduction and scale-up. Whether that timeline accelerates or stalls depends on technological breakthroughs in culture media, bioreactor design and cell line efficiency, and on whether consumers are willing to try meat that was never part of an animal.